After one of the best weeks in a lifetime for short sellers/put buyers, the premiums being paid by equity options put buyers are getting pricey.

This chart is the average small equity options trader (1 to 10 contracts per transaction) Buy-To-Open (BTO) premium put-call ratio. The OCC has published this data for nine years, and last week's smallest trader BTO premium PC ratio, at 1.70, eclipses the previous record of 1.48 set the week of July 22, 2002.

"The" bottom may not be in yet, but one could assume the writers of these equity put contracts (the majority likely being market makers) will end up walking away with the lion's share of these rich put premiums.

Of course, all of the extremes observed last week could reach yet higher extremes, but temporary relief for the bulls is getting close.

"As for it being different this time, it is different every time. The question is in what way, and to what extent" - Tom McClellan

"An economist is someone who sees something happen, and then wonders if it would work in theory" - Ronald Reagan

"What we see depends mainly on what we look for" - John Lubbock

"The eye sees only what the mind is ready to comprehend" - Henri Bergson

“Answers are easy; it’s asking the right questions which is hard” - Dr. Who - 1977

"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common - they don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views (which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering)" - Dr. Who - 1977

Insert Photos

Web address (URL)

Image URL

If your URL is correct, you'll see an image preview here. Large images may take a few minutes to appear.
Remember: Using others' images on the web without their permission may be bad manners, or worse, copyright infringement.